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Cat’s Run Away, Part Two: Emotionless

A culmination of events, beginning with the homeless man on the bus, and ending in my mother’s plan to put me in chains, resulted in me running away.

So one hour into my runaway plan, this is a general overview of my situation.

To prevent my mother and brother getting their paws on my iPad, I had taken it with me, along with two books I had been reading at the time.

I had been locked out of the house at the time, so I was unable to get a jacket, or anything warm.

The cat brush, which I had used to attack my brother with, was now in my pocket. For some reason I cannot contribute to anything but absentmindedness and potential insanity.

I had $0 in my possession. Meaning the only way to get to the city was on foot.

Speaking of which…

As I said before, the only things I had with me were the ones I had taken with me in the morning. And…I sort of didn’t put on shoes this morning.

So I was kind of barefoot.

I am so intelligent. And Daniel had the grace to point it out to me.

“Why, the HELL didn’t you put on shoes, you DENSE Mother-”

WHACK!

A lot of people gave me weird looks from that. After all, I just punched what was probably thin air. But I felt better. It’s all the satisfaction of punching a normal person, without the complications of a sore hand.

Either way, he shut up afterwards. Well, until I came to the park.

“Now what are you going to do?” he asked me. “It’s either prickles or gravel. Take your pick Cat.”

“Wait,” I stopped him. “Where are we, first off?”

Daniel stopped walking. “That Cat,” he said slowly. “Is a very good question.”

“Thanks for the compliment, now where are we?”

“…I wouldn’t know.”

“GODDAMMIT!”

The following consisted of a long course of swear words. Ones which are too creative for little eyes to see. Yes I’m referring to you Batman. You are classified as ‘little’.

But back to the story! 127 creative curse words later…

“Why didn’t we just follow the bus route that you take to school?” Daniel asked.

“Because if my parents drove down that way, they’d see me walking,” I said. “The plan was to walk a street down from the bus route. The same basic path to the city, just… sans recognisable landmarks.”

“Ask someone where Wonderland road is,” he suggested.

(And yes, I’m changing the streets and names of cities and stuff. Because I need to be more creative and discreet with the places I mention. Plus I love Alice in Wonderland, so this is where I’m going to live.)

So I went up to a car and asked the person in it.

And things turned out better than expected.

The guy, who I’m going to call Frankie, worked with runaways, and offered to drop me off in the city. Of course, he only did that after I told him I was going to stay with friends.

Truth was, I had no idea what I was going to do.

But anyway, Frankie dropped me off in the city. And gave me $5 so I could catch the train to wherever I needed to go.

So I got to Gumboot Station. And I trekked to where I could use the WiFi.

I managed to get in contact with members of my ‘family’, and let them know where I was. Sadly, I wasn’t able to stay with any of them.

So, I prepared myself for the possibility that I was going to sleep on the street.

Surprisingly, this did not terrify me. Were my emotions really that messed up?

I was almost shocked to feel that the normal fears that people talked about when they ran away didn’t come to me. Rape? I didn’t care. Murder? Go ahead. Torture? Meh. None of these potential scenarios made me feel anything.

But I soon discovered that I could still feel other things.

For example, when I came across a gentleman who directed me to the police station, I was suddenly filled with hope. And I realised that I really didn’t want to sleep on the street. But I still had no intention of going back home.

Thus began my journey to the police station.

About an hour later…

“Caaaaat.”

“What.”

“The Snug Street police station’s closed…”

“I realised that, Daniel.”

“Now whaaaaat?”

WHACK!

It was about half an hour before Daniel showed up again. In that time, I met up with a taxi driver, who decided to drive me to the police station. Eventually I realised he thought I had been raped, and I needed to report it. I must’ve looked worse than I thought… He was visibly relieved when I told him, and he gave me his card in case I needed him again.

He dropped me off about a street from the police station, and drove off. It was then that I realised something.

This was the police station on Snug Street.

Fuuuuuuuuuuudge.

So I focused on finding a landmark, like a hotel or somewhere. A place I could get directions.

Then someone showed up. Not Daniel, but something worse.

Creepy Stalker Guy.

A man who was walking far too close to me, and kept calling me ‘Baby’.

Ohhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiii-

I walked along about a hundred metres, Creepy Stalker Guy close on my heels. As I sped up my pace, I just kept thinking the same thing over and over again.

Shit. I’m going to be raped. Then I’ll be murdered. And then my friends will kill me. Somehow.

Then I saw the light of an open building. And my pessimistic monologue was replaced with one word.

RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

I dived inside the building, not caring what the Creepy Stalker Guy thought. I hid in a corner, surrounded by people, until I found it safe to come out.

And I ran into Daniel.

And I just burst into tears.

Daniel just stood there and put his arms around me. He didn’t need to say anything.

Then everyone came and surrounded me, asking for my permission to help me.

No one could drive me to the police station. It was late, and all the winos were out on Snug Street. But there was another police station at Mallymkum Road. One that was certainly open.

I was then escorted through the maze of winos to a safer place. I saw no sign of Creepy Stalker Man, and when I reached the somewhat civilised city life, I let myself believe I wasn’t going to see him again.

My escort left, and Daniel and I were left to navigate the rest of the city by ourselves.